A Safer City
Mayor Brandon Johnson Acknowledges He Has Been Unable to Rein in CPD Overtime Spending as Spending Blows Past Budget
Mayor Brandon Johnson addresses the news media on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)
Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged Wednesday he has not been able to rein in overtime spending by the Chicago Police Department, six months after he said the amount of taxpayer funds used to compensate CPD officers for working extra hours had “gotten increasingly out of control.”
The city spent $129 million on overtime for members of the CPD during the first six months of 2024 — nearly 30% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime for the entire year, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
“This is still very much a frustration I have,” Johnson said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference. “I’ve been in conversations with the superintendent, with our budget director to come up with better systems.”
The spending in the early part of the year means the city is on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of the year, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.
During Johnson’s 2023 campaign for mayor, he vowed to reimagine public safety in Chicago by addressing the root causes of crime and violence by increasing funding for youth employment programs and expanding mental health services.
Chicago spends so much on police overtime because of a “lopsided” approach to community safety that puts too much focus on law enforcement rather than efforts to reduce poverty and strengthen the city’s social safety net, Johnson said on Wednesday.
“The reason why overtime has looked the way it has looked is because of the way we have done community safety in Chicago, and turning the tide and transforming that particular paradigm – that is an ongoing effort,” he said. “There is some rigidity there that we do have to work through. And yes, there is still frustration, but I’m still very hopeful that we can turn things around.”
Chicago “has to do a better job” and stop relying on police to provide community safety, Johnson said.
“Of all of the things I have to transform in this city, that one is tough,” Johnson said. “I’m confident that we are going to build better systems of care.”
The city’s 2024 budget called for the city to double the number of social workers, addiction specialists and counselors working to respond to 911 calls for help from people experiencing mental health crises.
When former Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched that effort in 2021, known as the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement program, most teams included police officers even as the goal of the push was to prevent those suffering from mental health crises and substance abuse disorders from being sent to jail.
After more than 1,500 calls, no arrests were made by those teams, prompting Johnson to announce earlier this month police officers would no longer be included on those teams, which operate in Uptown, Lakeview, the Loop, the South Loop and across the Southwest Side.
“We expect and anticipate that will have some strong returns on investment,” Johnson said, noting that nearly 40% of all 911 calls involve someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
Contact Jared Rutecki: @JaredRutecki | [email protected]
